DQIX inspired by Oblivion, Diablo

Inbound Japanese role-playing game Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies was inspired by some unlikely candidates: Bethesda's Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Blizzard's Diablo.

"We have no recognition that Dragon Quest IX is a part of the so-called JRPG genre, unless you mean all the RPGs created in Japan are JRPGs," producer Ryutaro Ichimura told Game Informer.

"The quest system was inspired by The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which I played many times. And I would like to reference Diablo as the title which inspired our thinking about how we can maintain player's motivations."
Ichimura said the development team studied Diablo to learn about "motivation-control" and how to drive players to constantly search for the next weapon and armour upgrade.

Eurogamer's review of Dragon Quest IX will go live at 2pm BST today.

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